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Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

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Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#141

Post by godwinson__4-8 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #133
godwinson__4-8 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? You think the American way of life today is comparable to 1821? You think the standard of life you enjoy today is because of the triumph of local parochialism? The United States has always been ruled by elites [1]. The revolution was in large part kicked off because the Proclamation of 1763 rendered the westward land investments of the wealthy worthless [2]. Why would reading 1821 July 4th propaganda be instr…

>You think the standard of life you enjoy today is because of the triumph of local parochialism? My standard of life involves democracy and self-determination. Americans are 'pathetic' about that because it turns out at the end of the day liberty is a bit more durable of an idea than buying yet another pile of junk. If you think you can just throw fortune cookie economic slogans at people to convince them they want t…

[flagged]

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#142

Post by Teever »

tptacek wrote: post #124
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But data centers basically take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community. The jobs are minimal after the data center is built. It's a giant windowless box. I would much rather have a strip mall in my community. Strip malls often have local businesses as tenants (so money made by the business then gets spent in the community), and they provide services the local community can interact wit…

Office buildings take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community, and are islands in vast seas of asphalt and traffic attractors to boot. But nobody moralizes office buildings, just data centers, despite the fact that data centers are usually objectively better neighbors.

People have been talking about these issues for decades:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Life_of_Small_Urban...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Marohn

https://www.youtube.com/@NotJustBikes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Delahanty

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#143

Post by perpetuallunch »

warkdarrior wrote: post #122
gilthelander wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> You can't plant trees in a rail yard. Why not?

Seen what a tree can do to a sidewalk?

You can step over or walk around cracked and buckled concrete.

Trains don’t appreciate having their rail ballast disturbed.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#144

Post by bruce511 »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #77
tw04 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that after the advent of virtualization we had a glut of datacenter space, and then the crypto bros started buying them up to mine: do we actually need more datacenters? Or do we just need regulators to say things like: mining crypto to facilitate money laundering and ransomware isn’t welcome here?

The entire point of cryptocurrency is to be money that is independent of any government's ability to enforce its laws. I would personally vote against polticians who enacted those kinds of regulations; and if they passed anyway I would attempt to mine and use cryptocurrency in ways that circumvented the regulations banning me from doing so.

>> The entire point of cryptocurrency is to be money that is independent of any government's ability to enforce its laws.

Thats exactly correct. The killer app for crypto is criminal enterprise. Yes there are other niches, but nothing that would sustain the industry.

Passing a regulation regarding mining would be difficult to enforce. It's impossible to know what a GPU inside the data center is doing.

At this point the industry is legit, even promoted by individuals in govt (who overtly sell access (cough bribe) using it. So no, you don't need to worry, there's no risk of regulations like this anywhere soon.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#145

Post by dabinat »

In speaking with non-technical friends who are anti-data centers, I get the impression that they only recently discovered what a data center even was and are oblivious to how much they use data centers in their daily lives outside of AI.

But I don’t fault them even if they’re misinformed. AI is a big power grab by the wealthy and people feel helpless and are acting in the only way they think they can.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#146

Post by m463 »

mixdup wrote: post #24

I don't know what DC Blox was going to put in this particular datacenter, but they are a "traditional" colocation datacenter company. Maybe this one would've been superdense GPUs with a jet engine as electrical generator causing all kinds of noise, but it's also just as likely this would've been a project that 5 years ago no one would've batted an eye over, and wouldn't cause any issues in the local neighborhood That…

> this would've been a project that 5 years ago no one would've batted an eye over

I wonder if these "classic projects" have been morphing into jet engine projects as energy use vs energy available have changed.

personally datacenters have affected you and me: ssds, hard disks and memory are super expensive; electricity costs have gone up

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#147

Post by da_chicken »

ericcumbee wrote: post #125
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But data centers basically take land and resources and generate almost nothing for the local community. The jobs are minimal after the data center is built. It's a giant windowless box. I would much rather have a strip mall in my community. Strip malls often have local businesses as tenants (so money made by the business then gets spent in the community), and they provide services the local community can interact wit…

Property Tax revenue, and they are not a drain on services like schools, roads, fire department, police department etc. I'm watching this debate in a town that i am from and where I live. Our choices are pretty much be swallowed up by growth from neighboring cities and become a bed room community or solar farms and data centers. The downside with becoming a bedroom community is you risk creating a negative tax base.…

Nobody invests a billion dollars in a facility without first lobbying to get an exemption from property taxes. Most states in the US have passed incentives that include sales and property tax exemptions.

They're all drain.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#148

Post by altcognito »

mapping365 wrote: post #72
j2kun wrote: post #70

What I think is nice is that the political parties opposed to data center development are actually taking concrete steps, exercising specific powers, to advance their goals. So much opposition to tech boils down to whining, and then the tech companies get to do whatever they want anyway. Same complaint applies generally to the democratic establishment. It's nice to see people finally waking up to the reality that opp…

Eminent domain is like the the Thanos snap version of state power in a democratic / capitalist country. The ultimate representation of the peoples will over the individuals desire.

> will over the individuals desire.

If you believe corporations are people.

Even billionaires really don't operate as individuals, they are a monster that we've let grow to have unchecked power across the entire federal government.

(note, I may be agreeing with what you're saying I just don't agree with the framing of the "individual") Most of the pushback belongs against the entities that are more powerful than even the federal government at times.)

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#149

Post by tptacek »

da_chicken wrote: post #147
ericcumbee wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Property Tax revenue, and they are not a drain on services like schools, roads, fire department, police department etc. I'm watching this debate in a town that i am from and where I live. Our choices are pretty much be swallowed up by growth from neighboring cities and become a bed room community or solar farms and data centers. The downside with becoming a bedroom community is you risk creating a negative tax base.…

Nobody invests a billion dollars in a facility without first lobbying to get an exemption from property taxes. Most states in the US have passed incentives that include sales and property tax exemptions. They're all drain.

This is the opposite of the truth. For instance:

https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2026-08-04/dekalb-and-aurora...

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#150

Post by locknitpicker »

tptacek wrote: post #78
mixdup wrote: post #24

I don't know what DC Blox was going to put in this particular datacenter, but they are a "traditional" colocation datacenter company. Maybe this one would've been superdense GPUs with a jet engine as electrical generator causing all kinds of noise, but it's also just as likely this would've been a project that 5 years ago no one would've batted an eye over, and wouldn't cause any issues in the local neighborhood That…

The funny thing about data center concerns in Chicagoland, where I'm hearing it, is that data centers are better neighbors than almost any other commercial real estate. The data centers in Aurora are surrounded with prairie green space; everything else, including the nicest office buildings, are a sea of eyesore asphalt parking lots. I get there can be real concerns, locally-specific, about energy usage (again: they…

> The funny thing about data center concerns in Chicagoland, where I'm hearing it, is that data centers are better neighbors than almost any other commercial real estate.

This baseless assertion contrasts with any report or reasoning. They are noise generators operating 24/7 that eradicate social activity and purpose to such a degree that makes high-security prisons feel like community centers.

Please in your own words state what you feel is the primary advantage of having a data center in your neighborhood.

> The data centers in Aurora are surrounded with prairie green space; everything else, including the nicest office buildings, are a sea of eyesore asphalt parking lots.

You don't need to build a data center to plant some trees. There are other ways to do that, you know?

> But data centers by themselves intrinsically seem like very good neighbors, much better than warehouses and strip malls

You got to be joking. Datacenters are massive warehouses whose main output is noise 24/7.

Strip malls at least serve a purpose in the community, such as fulfilljng needs of those who go there to shop, and simplify the job if small business owners to setup and maintain a shop.

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